Pages of Inspiration–Book Review
Book: Mister God, This is Anna
Author: Fynn
Publisher: Ballantine Books, First Edition 1974
“The diffrense [sic] from a person and an angel is easy. Most of an angel is in the inside and most of a person is on the outside. These are the words of six-year-old Anna, sometimes called Mouse, Hum, or Joy.”
These are the opening lines of this delightful book called Mister God, This Is Anna. A true story of a little girl who believed that Mister God lived with her and everyone around her (“After all, if Mister God wasn’t everywhere, he wasn’t anywhere”), who spoke to Him like she would to a friend, and who had “bypassed all the nonessentials and distilled centuries of learning into one sentence: ‘And God said love me, love them, and love it, and don’t forget to love yourself.’ “
After a few pages, the book, which was written in 1974 by Fynn (aka Sidney Hopkins), will have us wondering if it really is a true story. But the author says it is, and there is certainly no evidence to the contrary. And this fact makes this one amazing story: To think that such a child really lived!
Anna was discovered in the London docks by the author, Fynn, when he was 19 years old and she 4. The book chronicles the next approximately 3.5 years of their life together, up until Anna’s accidental death. But read the book before you jump to any conclusions about the tragedy or form any opinions about the author.
Anna’s approximately 8 years on this planet, with her 3.5 years with Fynn and his family being the high point of her life, were lived unlike anyone else’s. Every moment was somehow related to Mister God. When she was 4, Mister God was her friend and companion. But as she grew older and absorbed the beauty and learned new things about the wondrous world around her, you can literally see her eyes growing wider and wider with amazement and admiration of Mister God’s greatness. But Anna’s own uniqueness lay in the fact that she did not stop with wonder. She tried to understand Him in her own way; and boy, did she get much more than any of us ever can!
“Fynn, you can love better than any people that ever was, and so can I, can’t I? But Mister God is different. You see, Fynn, people can only love outside and only kiss outside, but Mister God can love you right inside and can kiss you right inside, so it’s different. Mister God ain’t like us; we are a little bit like Mister God, but not much yet.”
Saying anything more about this book or about Anna will only bring down their value. So go read it. And you will also come to terms with why she died so young.
Nisha Giri, Houston, TX
